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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725123">what love might have done</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rradioh/pseuds/rradioh'>rradioh</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, canon rewrite (kinda), divorce kid feels</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:53:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rradioh/pseuds/rradioh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ricky follows his gut. Everything changes.</p><p>Some things stay the same.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what love might have done</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>for lis &lt;3 thanks for waiting luv u.</p><p>i meant to post this like a month ago but i haven't rlly had my computer and quarantine beat my ass and i'm becoming rapidly obsessed w/ harry potter again (jellandria k rowling when i fucking catch you...) so i wanted to get this out here before i completely forgot about it. it's not exactly how i want it but eh. i still like it. i kept redoing the ending over and over until i was like i just have to post it or i'll end up hating it forever. so here u all go :D idk if i'll come back and do a second chapter so for rn it's complete x</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> i saw what love might have done </em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>had we loved in time.</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em> - Mary Oliver </em>
</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>i. HOMECOMING</p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>Ricky doesn’t see the kiss coming, but his cheek buzzes with it for long minutes afterwards. He still hasn’t quite broken out of the stupor as he drives away, but he thinks if he sits in Gina’s driveway any longer her mom will call the cops. He drives all the way home slower than he ever has, playing the way Gina’s face had looked so close to his repeatedly in his head.</p><p>Her lips had been soft, and the bit of gloss left on them from when she had reapplied it on the way to her house was still sticky on Ricky’s cheek. Her whole body had been warm. Her nails had made a little scraping sound against the cup holder as she leaned over.</p><p>When he gets home, he thinks of texting Red, or waiting up to talk to his Dad (who’s out uncharacteristically late, but who is also uncharacteristically divorced, so maybe Ricky just doesn’t know his parent’s characters that much), and even almost calls Nini for some reason. But he decides against it and after a long, cold shower, he flops back onto his bed and stares up at the ceiling.</p><p>Ricky lets himself play the scene back again one last time. The car was dark, and the moon was barely visible beneath the trees in Gina’s front yard. The light on Gina’s face had been just the right shade of blue, interrupted every so often by the faint orange of her mom flicking the porch lights again. He hopes her mom didn’t see them. He wants to make a better first impression. With a loud groan, Ricky covers his face with his hands and drags them down. He hasn’t stopped blushing in two hours.</p><p>There’s a light knock on his door. His dad must have come home while he was in the shower. “You can come in,” Ricky calls, and the door opens a crack.</p><p>His dad hovers awkwardly, putting his hands on his hips and then back down. Ricky raises an eyebrow. His dad clears his throat. “Son,” His dad starts, obviously drunk. Ricky has to stop himself from laughing. This man is obviously in no state to pretend to care about a cheek kiss.</p><p>“Father,” Ricky answers.</p><p>“I heard you, and I don’t mean to embarrass you, but,” His dad pauses to burp. “Exploring yourself…sexually is completely natural. Just try to be quiet, okay, bud?” Ricky pauses, then remembers groaning on his bed just a few minutes earlier. He sputters and throws a pillow off his bed at the door, his face burning.</p><p>“Get out of my room, weirdo!” His dad puts his hands up in acquiesce and backs out the room. Ricky can hear him snickering and singing, <em> I’m going through changes </em>, in the hall. When the body freezing embarrassment dies down, Ricky suddenly — and almost violently — misses his mom. He feels the smile start to slip off his face.</p><p>Whatever. He thinks about Gina before he falls asleep and feels a little bit better.</p><p>*</p><p>Him and Red hang out the next day (at Red’s house, because Ricky’s dad is nursing a hangover in their living room). Ricky thinks about telling Red about The Kiss, but decides against it at the last minute. It feels wrong, somehow, to tell anyone. Gina still feels so unknown to most of them, it feels like an invasion of her privacy to make something so intimate public. Ricky doesn’t know if a cheek kiss is considered intimacy. He didn’t sleep well last night, if the way Red commented on his eye bags immediately upon seeing him is any indication.</p><p>Ricky also thinks this might be one of those things he has to deal with internally instead of outsourcing to Red. He loves Red, really, but his best friend has a tendency to just go along with Ricky’s bad ideas for a laugh. Also, Ricky’s not sure how he feels about it, if he’s allowed to feel anything at all. It feels weird to move on from Nini.</p><p>But Nini had already done that. And she had made it abundantly clear that EJ was not the only barrier in their road to recovery. Ricky isn’t even sure if that’s a road he wants to walk anymore.</p><p>He has a headache by the time Red drops him back off at home.</p><p>*</p><p>Gina texts him on Sunday morning, earlier than any human being should be awake. What the hell is going on at her house? (Later, he finds out her mom wakes her up early to too loud music and makes her clean <em>everything</em>.<em> The one constant no matter where they move,</em> Gina says.)</p><p>She informs him she left her purse in his car. He hasn’t been in it since the dance on Friday, but he’s sure if Gina says that’s where it is, then that’s where it is. <em> He’ll give it back to her on Monday </em> , he responds, and <em> does she have middle lunch or late lunch? </em></p><p><em> Early </em> , Gina texts back with an eye roll emoji. <em> Still a sophomore, remember? </em></p><p>Ricky winces and tries to think of a way to not come off as an asshole for not remembering she was an underclassman. <em> Right, sorry 2004 </em>, he decides on, then cringes at the already sent text.</p><p>Gina types, then pauses, then types again. Ricky is literally sweating. When Gina had first come to East High, he had been the only one who wasn’t intimidated by her, but one cheek kiss and now he was sweating through his shirt over text messages. <em> Whatever, 2003, </em> she finally responds, with two skull emojis.</p><p>Ricky’s entire body is warm without his permission, pumping with adrenaline like the first time he had landed a trick on his skateboard.</p><p>He had made her laugh.</p><p>*</p><p>Ricky has to get up early for costume fittings, where he will be seeing Gina. This is not at all correlated to him putting his cleanest Vans on. At least, that’s what he tells himself.</p><p>His dad is pissed because Ricky forgot to put gas in the car on Friday. At least, he says that’s what it is.</p><p>(Really, some movers woke them up at 6AM to pick up Ricky’s mom’s boxes. His dad had pointed to a corner of the living room, looking smaller than Ricky had ever seen him, saying, “That’s Lynne’s.”</p><p>Before, his parents had always called each other “Mom” and “Dad”, even when they didn’t know Ricky was listening. He had learned their real names by accident when they brought him to a party at one of their offices. Now they’re Lynne and Mike. Ricky isn’t sure who he is.)</p><p>He’s halfway down the block when he remembers Gina’s purse, and fishes it out of the crevice between the seats as his dad walks by. “You had a girl in the car?” Mike asks, and Ricky decides to ignore him before they end up arguing in the middle of the driveway before 8AM.</p><p>Gina straightens her hair for the dress rehearsal, and the way the light catches the curl that falls over her shoulder keeps turning Ricky’s head. His wig is ridiculous, Kourtney assures him confidently. Gina reaches up and tries to set it straight, and Ricky can smell her perfume just as brightly as he could on Homecoming night. The two of them have been texting since Sunday morning, and obviously Gina feels comfortable. Now that Ricky thinks about it, so does he.</p><p>(Her and EJ go off to a corner and argue about something before Carlos breaks them apart. Ricky is starting to think EJ just likes the attention that comes with ruining a pretty girl’s day.)</p><p>He doesn’t see Gina for the rest of the day, which might be normal, but now he’s noticing her absence. He’s not sure why that’s explicitly adding to his terrible mood, but it is.</p><p>They see each other in the hallway on the way to rehearsal and walk in amicable silence before they’re swallowed in the noise of the theater kids.</p><p>*</p><p>Red, only remembering that Homecoming happened when someone in the ensemble talks about an after party, turns to Ricky and asks, “Speaking of complicated, what happened with Gina after the dance?”</p><p>Ricky turns the question over in his head and comes back to the same place he had when they hung out on Saturday. <em> I made her laugh, </em>he almost says, although he’s not sure why. He settles on, “I’m not sure yet,” with a hopefully sly look in Gina’s direction. She’s talking to Kourtney, who might hate him. Nini is in earshot at the piano. There’s too much going on.</p><p>“Okay, but did you find out what happened with her and EJ at the dance?”</p><p>Ricky pauses. “Yeah…Not sure about that, either.”</p><p>“Okay,” Red deflates, staring at Ricky like he’s grown a second head, “Should I just live vicariously through someone else?”</p><p>*</p><p>Miss Jenn manages to get herself mostly fired, which is bold of her considering how Ricky struggles with abandonment issues re: older women in his life. It’s like everyone is trying to give him a complex. He’s still not looking forward to going home, at all, which is perfect because rehearsal gets cancelled.</p><p>Amid everyone arguing with each other, he tries to help and is immediately shut down, which fucking sucks. Gina’s the solitary, “I vote for that!” Everyone ignores her, too, but they share a secret smile with each other. Ricky isn’t even sure what their secret is.</p><p>Later, after Carlos has exploded and everyone has left, Gina stays behind.</p><p>She hovers for a few seconds. Ricky’s head is swimming because he kind of can’t handle losing this, too, he’s never really been good at something that people thought <em> mattered </em>before and— </p><p>“That…ball parked fast.” Gina offers with an awkward laugh.</p><p>“Nothing fell apart,” He says immediately. He can’t tell which of them he’s trying to comfort. “It’s all gonna be okay.”</p><p>Gina raises a thick eyebrow and purses her lips. “Do you…know something I don’t know?” Ricky thinks of The Kiss again, even though he knows that has nothing to do with their conversation.</p><p>“She’s Miss Jenn, she’s unstoppable,” He offers, and is surprised to find he really means it. “…The whole show is unstoppable.”</p><p>Gina is looking at him the way Red was earlier, like he’s an anomaly. “But what if it does stop?”</p><p>Ricky feels his skin prickle and snaps without meaning to. “Let’s not go there. It can’t…stop.” He looks away from her face for what feels like the first time since Homecoming. “We still have too much work to do.”</p><p>He knows his snippy tone has made things awkward. The air hangs differently around them than how it was when they were in the car or walking to rehearsal together. At this point, Ricky is just trying to get home before he accidentally blows up at the wrong person and ends up ruining something he doesn’t even understand yet.</p><p>“Uh…yeah. Can—Can I hear that acoustic song idea? It sounded cool.”</p><p>“You serious?”</p><p>Gina smiles. It feels like the world breathes new air into the room. “I mean...” She starts, a mischievous glint in her eye, “We’ve got the time.”</p><p>*</p><p>Ricky is buzzing with energy every time she looks at him, like a little kid with their first crush. He wishes the song was longer, because he still hasn’t thought of something fun and witty to say to her afterwards.</p><p>“So, yeah,” He settles on, cringing. “There’s that.”</p><p>“That was really good, Ricky,” Gina says, and he tries not to get a big head. But pretty girls telling you you’re good at guitar is pretty much textbook high school boy ego boost. “God,” She continues, following him back over to the piano. “I would <em> kill </em>to play guitar like that.”</p><p>Ricky makes a face. “Okay, but you’re good at, like, everything else, so…” They both laugh. “I don’t want to hear it.”</p><p>“What’s everything else?” She banters back. She’s almost taller than him in her boots, which is humbling.</p><p>“Oh, you know, acting, dancing, throwing drinks in people’s faces,” He makes her laugh again. His stomach keeps dropping in a kind of good way.</p><p>“I was kind of hoping you’d forgotten about that,” She says, only half-joking. Ricky doesn’t know what to say. It’s strange to experience Gina like this. Gina had never been scary, but she had always been unknowable in a way. Like Bigfoot.</p><p>He’s glad he didn’t say that out loud. They’re finally talking about homecoming, and Ricky doesn’t want to open with calling her a cryptid. He turns her words over in his head a few times, but she’s looking at him expectantly, so after a couple of seconds he just blurts the second thing that came into his mind.</p><p>“I kinda can’t forget about anything that happened at homecoming.” He says. The room suddenly seems too quiet. She blinks at him a few times and tilts her head. One of her curls shifts further over her shoulder. She’s … really pretty. He takes a step forward and can smell the peach scent of her lip gloss. A long, charged moment sits between them. He’s trying to tell her, <em> your move, </em>but she doesn’t speak up.</p><p>Then he remembers their conversation on Sunday. She’s a sophomore. On top of that, she’s a sophomore who’s always moving around. What are the odds that she’s ever had to make a move before? Ricky tries to stop himself from smiling a little. He bets that cheek kiss was a big deal to her. He wants to say, <em> it was to me, too, </em> but there’s a time and a place for that.</p><p>“Should we be doing something?” He offers as an out. Gina blinks again, this time surprised and maybe a little excited.</p><p>“What do you mean...?” She responds hopefully.</p><p>Ricky raises an eyebrow. Miss Jenn is an easy out to this conversation.</p><p>But moving to Chicago is an easy out, too. Faking your resume is an easy out. Not saying I love you is an easy out.</p><p>He’s starting to see that people only end up more hurt when they try to do things the easy way.</p><p>So, he takes a deep breath and says, “Well, I’d like to kiss you again, if that wasn’t just a fluke.”</p><p>Gina smiles like she can’t quite help herself from doing it. “Not a fluke,” She says, bravely for someone who has probably never even been on a date before. “Did you drive today?”</p><p>Ricky takes another step closer. The roots of her hair are already puffing up a little in the humidity of the theater room. He misses her curly hair. She’s still smiling a little, a secret smile. Ricky is glad to be in on it. He nods to answer her question. “We can get something to eat. We’ve got the time.”</p><p>*</p><p>“No onions,” Gina says at the counter, then turns to Ricky.</p><p>“None on mine, either,” he says, then pulls out his wallet to pay. Gina drums her fingers against the linoleum.</p><p>*</p><p>He offers Gina the seat but she decides the floor is cleaner. She might be right. The carpet is basically the only thing that’s not sticky in the room.</p><p>Red says, “You picked Gina up?” Right before they all convene.</p><p>They look at each other and flounder, Gina opting to shove her hands in her leather jacket. Ricky wants to kiss her. He hasn’t stopped wanting to kiss her since the first time he got the chance to.</p><p>“Yeah, we got some food when rehearsal got cancelled, so we were still together.” Gina is smiling down at her shoes. Ricky wants to <em> kiss her. </em></p><p>Red raises an eyebrow. “You were still <em> togetherrr?” </em></p><p>Ricky rolls his eyes. “Goodbye, Red,” He sighs, and Red laughs a little too loud as Ricky and Gina leave.</p><p>Gina giggles too. That makes Ricky feel better.</p><p>*</p><p>“One more,” Gina says in the car outside her house, leaning over the divider with a smile between her lips.</p><p>“One more.” Ricky agrees, his words already lost as the space between them disappears.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>ii.THANKSGIVING</p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>Gina lifts herself up onto the counter, nudging Ricky’s hand with hers. “I would say to ignore it. That’s what I would do.”</p><p>Ricky stares at the kitchen floor. “But?”</p><p>“But...I know you. You’re not the best at leaving things alone, so—“ She waves her hands to signal nothing and everything. Ricky gets it. “Call her if you think you should. Trust your gut.”</p><p>Ricky makes a non-committal <em> hm </em>sound and Gina sighs. “Come here,” She takes a cupcake out of the tray and breaks off a piece. “Ahhh.” Ricky stares. “C’mon.” She laughs, and Ricky opens his mouth to let her feed him.</p><p>“They’re good.” He murmurs, picking at the marble counter top.</p><p>“Lemme taste.” Gina says, steering Ricky’s lips towards her own. Ricky obliges. The hat she knit for him is still gripped tightly in his hand.</p><p>*</p><p>“Ricky!” Nini exclaims, like he snuck up on her when he walked through the front door. Then, a beat later, “Gina..!” Like she realized halfway through she didn’t sound nearly as excited to see the other girl.</p><p>Gina smiles. “I brought cupcakes!”</p><p>“No onions,” Ricky adds without thinking, and Gina’s face crinkles into a laugh.</p><p>“No onions,” Gina confirms.</p><p>Nini is still hovering at the bottom of the staircase. “Uh, you can put them in the kitchen, right through there...”</p><p>*</p><p>He sees Gina do a little dance out of the corner of his eye after her talk with Nini. It’ll take longer for him to warm up to the idea, but he can (begrudgingly) admit that Gina and Nini would probably be a fearsome pair of friends.</p><p>When Gina comes back to the living room, he raises an eyebrow and she beams. “Guess what?”</p><p>“What?” He asks, his mouth full. Gina makes a face but continues anyway.</p><p>“I got invited to a sleepover!” She whispers as their friends buzz around them, setting up the game. She does her little dance again. Ricky smiles and claps for her, looking around quickly before looping their pinkies together. “I’ve never been to one before.” She admits.</p><p>“I figured. First dance, first date, first knit hat, first sleepover.” Ricky fake sniffles. “They grow up so fast.”</p><p>Gina pinches him, then mumbles, “First kiss, too,” and doesn’t answer when Ricky whispers <em> what?! </em>over and over again.</p><p>*</p><p>Ricky really likes watching Gina. She’s one of those people who’s always in control of the way they appear, holding her body just so and choosing her words perfectly. In the middle of the game, she’s babbling nonsense trying to come up with answers, and jumping up from the couch unceremoniously to beat other people to the punch. (To say she’s competitive is selling her intensity short.)</p><p>One of the curls from her bun is falling out from all her enthusiasm, and she turns to beam at him, pointing at him how basketball players point to their partners in the stands. He laughs and she does, too.</p><p>Then her phone rings. Gina puts up a finger, her smile still on her face when she answers. Ricky can’t hear whatever she says from across the room, but her teeth disappear behind her lips as the conversation goes on, until she eventually moves off to the side.</p><p>Ricky’s stomach drops.</p><p>The sound of Gina’s phone call is coming in and out, taking a backseat to whatever joke Carlos is making, until Gina yells, “They can’t do this to us again, we just moved here! It’s not fair!” Ricky stares at her, feeling like time has slowed down as she looks back over to him and then walks off to the kitchen.</p><p>Ricky doesn’t even feel like he’s in his body when he walks to the kitchen to check on her. She looks so small, wrapped up in her own arms before grabbing her coat. He walks in silently, waiting for her to look at him. She never does. He misses her already. It feels like someone broke his chest open.</p><p>“Do you wanna talk about it?”</p><p>Gina shakes her head, then, like she thinks he can’t see her, says, “Not really.” There’s another beat of silence. Ricky feels like they’re on the edge of something. He tries not to fall but it’s hard when you’re blindfolded.</p><p>“I’ll...call you?” Ricky offers, fidgeting with the pan. Gina snatches it back, then pauses midair like she hadn’t quite meant to be so agitated.</p><p>“Honestly?” Gina sighs, her warm eyes suddenly flinty. “You heard what happened."</p><p>They stare at each other, and Ricky swears he sees something inside of her break a little, like a bottle falling off the shelf in the pantry of an empty home. Gina looks away. Ricky knows, then, that she's going to take the easy way out.</p><p>"I don’t think there’s any point in calling me anymore, do you?”</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>iii. OPENING NIGHT</p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>Time feels a step past frozen as they look at each other. Ricky thinks of the book he read sophomore year, the main character standing alone in a phone booth, saying, <em>"I have a million things to talk to you about..."</em></p><p>Gina keeps her distance, rubbing the hem of her jacket between her thumb and her forefinger.</p><p>
  <em> "All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk..." </em>
</p><p>He clears his throat and says, almost reverently, "You came back."</p><p>
  <em> "I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning." </em>
</p><p>She smiles, then. It's like the sun coming out. "Don't blink," she says. "Or you'll miss me."</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if u just found this scrolling the archive fmot: @rradioh xoxo</p></blockquote></div></div>
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